Slashdot Mirror
One SimCity Per Child
SimHacker writes "Electronic Arts has donated the original 'classic' version of Will Wright's popular SimCity game to the One Laptop Per Child project. SimCity is the epitome of constructionist educational games, and has been widely used by educators to unlock and speed-up the transformational skills associated with creative thinking. It's also been used in the Future City Competition by seventh- and eighth-grade students to foster engineering skills and inspire students to explore futuristic concepts and careers in engineering. OLPC SimCity is based on the X11 TCL/Tk version of SimCity for Unix developed and adapted to the OLPC by Don Hopkins, and the GPL open source code will soon be released under the name
"Micropolis", which was
SimCity's original working title. SJ Klein, director of content for the OLPC, called on game developers to create
'frameworks and scripting environments — tools with which children themselves could create their own content.' The long term agenda of the OLPC SimCity project is to convert SimCity into a scriptable Python module, integrate it with the OLPC's Sugar user interface and Cairo rendering library. Eventually they hope to apply
Seymour Papert's and Alan Kay's ideas about constructionist education and teaching kids to program."
I remember I use to enjoy that game immensely when I was younger. I almost do believe it may very well help a person to develop their thinking abilities.
I know people don't read the article, but can we at least read the summary? It says it RIGHT THERE:
"OLPC SimCity is based on the X11 TCL/Tk version of SimCity for Unix developed and adapted to the OLPC by Don Hopkins..."
A targeted campaign to help develop observational skills and problem solving by packaging Myst with the XO? Sounds like the beginning of bloat to me.
EA already has a combination Java/Javascript version of the game online here: http://simcity.ea.com/play/simcity_classic.php
The game lends itself well to semi-fixed graphics that update on a slower basis. So making the jump from Java/Javascript to 100% DHTML would be far less of a jump than going from the original code to Python.
And don't worry about the saved games. It would be a perfect opportunity to put the Storage API (implemented in recent FireFox and SeaMonkey builds) to good use:
http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#storage
Did you even read beyond the title? I wonder how you even managed to make it onto Slashdot...
It was ported, and it says so right in the text...
Is this to give the kids a virtual sense of what it's like to live in a 1st world country? "look at all of the nice luxuries you will never experience!" how about the irony of building a nuclear powerplant on a computer you have to handcrank?
http://greenobyl.com/ please.... think of the children!!
Great, now all the kids in third world countries are going to think that western cities are subject to alien attacks if you type "cass" more than 3 times.
I remember SimCity on the Amiga, and accoring to Wikipedia its been on OS/2, MacOS, SNES, Acorn, BBC Micro, GBA, Linux, Playstation, ZX Spectrum, and many more.
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
"We're trying to raise these kids out of poverty/third world squalor and ignorance."
Maybe we should ask were the OLPC project and Simcity falls on Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
Aw, don't be rude. He's a headkase.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
isnt SimCity classic abandonware? should be free to download if you want.
I see I'm too late to beat our cynical Slashdotters to the punch. Instead of complaining about how evil EA is, and what kind of ulterior motives they may have, can we simply not recognize this as a net Good Thing? I know I learned a lot of planning for the future, fiscal management, and balancing multiple (sometimes conflicting) priorities while still achieving overall success, from that game as a child. Technical issues aside from making the game run, this will be a great gain for OLPC users.
When I first got my copy of Sim City years ago, I was such a jerk as a mayor. I had a damn fine city. No crime, no pollution, no trash, no fires, no NOTHIN'. It was the perfect city. I always managed a surplus, and the city could keep growing and growing. My excellent management skills made sure everything was compact and efficient. I was extremely creative in my infrastructure. I was also a jerk. When I realized that I was doing TOO good of a job, I decided, "That's it. This is boring. I'm going to be a jerk." So I started putting airports right smack in the middle of residential sectors, putting a single factory in the middle of a commercial district, making roads that could easily go straight zigzag, and making huge detours when I could easily put an inter-section. I also raised taxes as high as possible without having people get too mad. The power was really, really fun. Now, do we want a world full of egotistical ten years who are jerks to those who follow them "Just 'cause." I think not!
The potential implications for Linux (or, open-source operating systems) in the desktop market, as a result of OLPC, have just been made clear to me.
Increased user base
Increased demand for applications and games
Increased demand for supported hardware
It's brilliant!
Of late, it seems that EA is cleaning itself up. I between screwing up C&C: Generals (a patch for the expansion left the game in a broken state for a few years), employee mistreatment, and generally writing mostly shovelware franchise titles like Madden, I had been boycotting them. But now I think they deserve another chance because:
So while I'm still keeping a close eye on them, they've at least convinced me that their games are worth buying.
Not a typewriter
- Will it work on a black and white screen when the color codes are so important
- What about the open source lincity ?
\u262D = \u5350
sim city was great. sim city 2000 was awesome. sim ant was pretty fun, had some really humorous moments. sim farm was tough. every farm i built went bankrupt except almond farms. maybe it was too realistic. sim life was cool as far as i could tell, it really taxed my pc at the time.
i still have the floppys, manuals and boxes for all those games. top quality stuff, i don't think you see materials of that quality any more when it comes to games.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Is that Germglish for Head Cheese? Because ick.
Now the kids will have something to keep them occupied during the times they can't access the internet to download their porn. Reference: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/21/1353241
fork();
Actually, do you know about Windows Vista Starter Edition?
Even funnier, it's intended for markets like these.
Here's the info: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-Vista-Starter-Edition-in-Images-57484.shtml
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
I ported the Mac version of SimCity to SunOS Unix running the NeWS window system about 15 years ago, writing the user interface in PostScript. And a year or so later I ported it to various versions of Unix running X-Windows, using the TCL/Tk scripting language and gui toolkit. Several years later when Linux became viable, it was fairly straightforward to port that code to Linux, and then to port that to the OLPC.
SimCity Info
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/index.html
Video Tape Transcript of Toronto Usenix Symposium Keynote Address
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/keynote.html
Video Tape Transcript of HyperLook SimCity Demo
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/hyperlook-demo.html
HyperLook SimCity Demo Video
http://www.donhopkins.com/home/movies/HyperLookDemo.mov
Video Tape Transcript of X11 SimCity Demo
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/x11-demo.html
X11 SimCity Demo Video
http://www.donhopkins.com/home/movies/X11SimCityDemo.mov
Linux SimCityNet Demo Video
http://www.donhopkins.com/home/movies/SimCityNetDemo.mov
Cellular Automata in SimCityNet on Unix Video
http://www.donhopkins.com/home/movies/CellularSimCity.mov
Unix World 1993 Review of SimCity
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/simcity-review.html
Multi-Player SimCity for X11 Announcement
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/simcity-announcement.html
SimCityNet: a Cooperative Multi User City Simulation
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/simcitynet.html
SimCity-For-X11.gif : Screen shot of SimCity running on X11.
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/SimCity-For-X11.gif
SimCity-Indigo.gif : Multi player X11 SimCity running on an SGI Indigo.
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/SimCity-Indigo.gif
SimCity-NCD.gif : Multi player X11 SimCity running on an NCD X Terminal.
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/SimCity-NCD.gif
SimCity-Sun.gif : Multi player X11 SimCity running on an Sun.
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/simcity/SimCity-Sun.gif
HyperLook-SimCity.gif : SimCity HyperLook Edition. SimCity running on HyperLook, a user interface development environment for the NeWS window system.
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/hyperlook/HyperLook-SimCity.gif
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/hyperlook/index.html
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/lang/NeWS.html
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Oops, it seems that review missed much of what really sets it apart.
Wikipedia seems better in this case:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista_editions_and_pricing
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
I can't wait to see what some of the more "creative" children think up as natural disasters.
I sincerely hope one of them will include a massive terminator army bringing the apocalypse to their newly constructed sim cities.
Have you payed your dues jack? Yes sir, the check is in the mail.
If they were really nice, they'd donate SC2000..and SimCopter, and Streets of SimCity. I had so much fun playing those when I was younger, never mind the infamous atrocious player models and gay kissing scandal in SimCopter. Making crazy cities with custom bitmap textures in the construction kit then driving around in 'em in SoSC..I played the original SimCity years later and it just didn't compare. Although getting the latter two to work on *nix might be a bit trickier than the classic SimCity..heh heh.
A game, used in a supervised setting for educational use, with an actual plan: Growth in learning.
A game, used in an unsupervised setting, without any plan: Is just a leisure pursuit.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Just wait for the source code release ;)
I'm so glad they are going to release the source to this, I hope /. has a link to it when it happens. I've always wondered how the internal simulation of the game was programmed, as I've never seen one like that and I'd love to go see that source.
I really wish the source to more old games and programs were available. There would be so much to see. While some games don't really have source that would be easy to look at (Super Mario Brothers and many others are surely assembly)... some games like SimCity must have source considering how many platforms they were ported to (by the time it made it to Windows, they must have had a C version, or in some other high language).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
So every child in developing nations will know that door-to-door commuter rail is the only way to avoid congestion.
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
This is Simcopter one, reporting heavy philanthropy.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Unsupervised games are the rock foundation of human society. What exactly do you think toddlers, kids and teenagers do when they play cowboys and indians, marbles, crash-the-truck, imitate-mom-and-dad-in annoying-ways, spin-the-bottle or other completely random, unsupervised, goal-less games?
I agree that there's a need for goal-driven and supervised learning (whether it takes the form of games or not), but games played in a leisurely fashion, without specific goals, are just as important in the development of a child. Not only that, but they are the only way that children can actually grow on their own, unless their educator/parents are supremely gifted and know the children better than they know themselves.
Education is more than just knowing how to pour concrete. I pity the soul that thinks that it isn't.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
That's true, but a leisurely past time can be educational as well. Fun is one of the strongest motivators for learning.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
The laptops are more than powerful enough to run Sim City 2000, which was far superior to the original, why not use that?
I'm sooo tired of building my dreamtown only to see it crash and burn
how do you fix corrupt simcity data files? i've looked everywhere, nada
A child can learn in an unsupervised setting. Part of becoming an adult is learning how to learn without someone actively directing you.
this "plan" idea is utter BS that you obviously pulled out of your rear end.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
That's right! It is impossible to learn anything without an adult standing around telling you what to think!
People like you are the reason I hated school.
Or simcity1 + a few things from 2000 like water pipes, the highways, subways, zoned airports and seaports as well.
Is that you? // note - pick your own bogeyman, she's mine :)
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Sim City is a great game - I used to play Sim City 2000 a *lot* back in the day, and still have an original Sim City 2000 CD knocking around somewhere.
:-)
However, I'd be hesitant recommending it as an educational game, as in that capacity it is essentially socialist propaganda. That of course is a consequence of the nature of the game itself; if common law replaced city planning, and services like roads, mass transit, healthcare and education were privatized, then there wouldn't be a lot for a Sim City gamer to do.
Essentially it'd boil down to administration & law & order - which are the proper functions of Government, but don't exactly make for a thrilling game
Anyone want to port my game ChipWits - the original version - to the OLPC? I've asked on the OLPC Wiki but haven't followed up.
I wrote the first version in FORTH (in 1984 on the Mac, C-64, and Apple II), so the source code won't be much help.
http://chipwits.com/
Channel Zilch: In Your Face From Outer Space!
...could you free Silent Death to us?
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
Another great activity would be SimWorld with the game linked to actual data of the world's resources.
He donated the ORIGINAL SimCity? That game's over ten years old! Big deal! It's not like it's worth anything anymore! I mean, sure, it's great that he's trying to help, but ya know, I'm pretty sure some of the newer SimCity games might do a slightly better job. Probably not the latest, but the second and I believe third ones were pretty good. Added things like garbage disposal and water, zoning, and a large variety of structures.
I've learned TONS of things from games and other diversions on the PC.
:)
Mavis Beacon (explicitly educational) taught me proper typing, but chatting with my friends on AIM and (especially) busy IRC channels taught me to type FAST.
Shadow President is the reason I can locate practically any country on a map faster than the vast majority of people.
A lot of stuff in my political science classes (and my own readings on philosophy in general) reminded me of ideas and people in Deus Ex.
Medieval: Total War taught me more about medieval political geography, politics, and technology (war-related tech, that is) than I was ever taught in any level of my education (yeah, I know more from reading, but no class ever taught me this stuff; we always skipped from talking about the Fertile Crescent to covering the Age of Exploration. Seriously.)
Rome: Total War and a couple of its mods (Rome: Total Realism and Europa Barbarorum, especially) have taught me a TON about the Hellenistic and Roman periods of history. Thanks to them, I know BOTH the Koine or Attic Greek AND Latin names for tons of Mediterranean cities (though I often don't know the modern name!)
Bushido Blade 1 & 2 and Shogun: Total War taught me the names of a bunch of different Japanese weapons.
I know a bit about the operation of a variety of firearms that I've never physically used, from paying close attention to the reload animations in dozens of games over the years (Counter-Strike and most WWII shooters are GREAT for this).
OK, so a lot of it's not *useful* information, but I did learn
Only one character per child? I'd make mine a really really fat character to compensate for that limit.
Table-ized A.I.
I wonder if there'll be a port of OpenTTD? Any chance the necessary Transport Tycoon Deluxe assets to get it working might be donated to OLPC users?
:p)
(Still want OpenTTD for Nokia S60e3
I recall this worked for railroads but it may be applicable to other elements as well.
When the city starts clamoring for railroads just build them anywhere in a big clump (even in the corner of the map where they are not accessible or leading to anything). This way everyone is happy you have a railroad and they don't get in the way of anything - SimCity even simulates pork barrel projects!
Okay, I'd love to read the original article but I don't know if I have the patience to guess-and-check my way through the onslaught of hyperlinks in the summary. Dear god, calm down with the linking already.
I've said it before, and I will say it again, the OLPC project is a waste. It is basically to satisfy Negroponte's enormous ego: Look at me, giving away FREE computers for illiterate children! Why not take that money, and spend it in ways that will make the lives of impoverished people everywhere more meaningful. Open up some more microfinancing projects so that small busnisses can get started. Fund teacher's and nurse's colleges in the third world so that there are more people to teach a child to read and write, and more people to provide desperately needed public health services. Why not send in experienced farmers to teach the people of the third world better agricultural practices so that they may feed themselves. Oh no, that stuff ain't cool. Look at me, I'm Negroponte! I make hand powered laptops to be sent to illiterate kids in the thrid world so that MY name will last forever.
EA, who otherwise is a pretty evil outfit is doing something nice here, and I don't even care if it is for publicity.
They are open-sourcing a classic game rather than threatening to jail people who attempt to collect it via abandonware like certain people do (I'm looking right at you Vivendi!)
EA should be praised for this gesture, even as small as it seems. I can't believe someone is opening up software, and people are complaining.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I love tcl/tk. It is amazing how quickly development goes. But, won't the game be slow? Well, maybe the author added some c library stuff to do the grunge work and uses tcl/tk as a framework. Also it depends on how fast the games generates new states. I think it might be the case that for a child learning about simulations and programming, slowing the "machine" down will enable them to watch all the gears meshing. The quest for speed might be counter productive here.
I think it would be really cool if the game gets extended to incorporate collaboration such that seveal kids can link their environments together to simulate border issues. Am I dreaming that this might someday result in better international relations? How about if we donate a few of these games to the US State Department, would that help?
Gary Dunn
Open Slate Project
It's probably worth noting that Alan Kay (not Kaye) is a little more than just "one of Papert's colleagues" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kay. In many ways Kay could be considered the inventor of the OLPC concept with his Dynabook concept from the 1970s. He was also one of the inventors of OOP and Smalltalk and is probably the most informed person on the planet when it comes to discussing the role of computers in education. If Kay sees problems with SimCity as an educational tool on the XO he should be listened to IMHO.
I remember that game being addictive. The first time I played it I though I had played for about 90 minutes. Looking at the clock I had blown 6 hours!
[Start Humor]
While the game does teach some concepts, it might just kill other educational opportunities. On the plus side there will be no shortage of civil engineers.
[End Humor]
Think Deeply.
Having lived in a 3rd world country for 30 years, I think it amazing that some jack-ass from a gaming company thinks he can fix the third world by sending them games. If you want to really help, donate to some outfit that helps teach appropriate technology: well digging etc, or how to plant vegetables and grow their own food.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
False dichotomy. Leisure pursuits can be great for learning. It's the reason I could code circles around my Electrical Engineering classmates as an undergrad.
Do they have that in languages that are used by target audience of OLPC?
People who complain that SimCity and its successors don't accurately model city building and management are missing the point. No simulation can totally model the complexities of a city. The reason SC is educational is because it teaches skills like creative problem-solving, planning, and risk-reward tradeoffs. What's the optimum road layout? Is it cost-effective to use parks to offset the unhappiness of high taxes? Will that nuclear power plant allow for greater growth in future years, or will the cost of replacing it in 50 years bankrupt me? Hell, any game that teaches people to budget and stay out of debt is a good thing--imagine what the national debt would be like if the President had played SC. (okay, that's over the top, but very few people have a grasp of how debt really works)
So what if the only way to reduce crime is building police stations. The educational part isn't the concept that police prevent crime, the educational part is the skills learned in figuring out how many stations to build, and in what locations, to achieve an acceptable crime rate while not spending too much money.
Shadow President is the reason I can locate practically any country on a map faster than the vast majority of people.
You misspelled "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?".
What a bunch of douches, they refuse to let Opera users visit their Classic Live site, unless they change their client ID to tell them it's IE or Firefox. I'd love to bust their collective heads for that idiocy.
Why not port simcity 1 snes it had extra stuff in it that later showed up in simcity 3000 and 4
That version of SimCity is the original SimCity Classic code written in C, packaged as an ActiveX control. It's not written in Java or JavaScript (or PHP for that matter).
The version of the code we're releasing initially uses the TCL/Tk scripting language and user interface toolkit. But the simulation code itself is written in C. It's plugged into the scripting language, which can call it, but only integrated to a limited extent (just what the user interface required, not exposing all the workings of the simulator).
Next we will repackage the original simulator as a Python module. The first step is to recast the original C code into a C++ class, so all the global variables and global arrays are local instance variables of a SimCity object, so you can have any number of simulations active at one time and they will not interfere with each other.
After SimCity is recast as a C++ object, we will plug it into Python and other scripting languages by using SWIG, which is a nice way to integrate C and C++ code into a whole bunch of different scripting languages.
Then we'll rewrite the user interface in Python, based on the other efficient modules that are integrated into Python but written in C or C++, including the GTK user interface toolkit for X11, the Cairo graphics library (like PostScript graphics but much better and hardware accelerated), the Pango text layout engine (draws with Cairo, supports internationalized text, so SimCity can support Unicode text and be translated into languages with non-English-like layout such as Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, etc.), a C++ tile engine I wrote for Python that draws with Cairo, pie menus I wrote in Python that draw with Cairo, and many other useful modules.
The idea is to open up the simulator so it can be easily and deeply scripted in Python. It was designed for the C64, so it can run extremely fast (on the order of a year a second) on the OLPC, and there is plenty of left over CPU power to call back into an interpreted scripting language like Python, and still be quite playable. It will still run very fast, because the core number crunching will still be written in C, but it will be able to call out to Python hooks and plug-ins, and Python will be able to reach in, tweak the simulation, change the parameters, edit the model, etc, so you'll be able to program your own disasters, monsters, tornados, editing tools, zones, artificial intelligence, robots, agents, etc. And also implement network sharing features, muti-player features, journaling and storytelling features, tivo-like fast forward and rewind features, etc. The goal is to inspire kids to learn Python programming and develop their own games, by reimplementing SimCity's user interface in terms of reusable components.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
SimLife was terrific, and I should think would also be great for learning genetics, population biology, and evolution. I don't know why it wasn't carried forward. As far as I know the only way to run it is on an ancient Mac. I wish there was a Linux version.
The next step is porting SimCity to Python and the OLPC's "Sugar" user interface, and taking advantage of all the cool mesh networking stuff to implementing a fully distributed multi player version of SimCity.
To tell the truth, the version of SimCity we're releasing actually does support multi player mode via the X11 protocol, if you run it with a special parameter on the command line. But I turned it off and disabled the multi player mode by default, for the purposes of simplifying and releasing OLPC SimCity as soon as possible.
It's much better goal to port SimCity to Python and rewrite SimCity's user interface to use the OLPC's mesh networking and Python based network communication architecture, instead of using low level X11 protocol. I consider the TCL/Tk version of SimCity to be a dead end not worth investing a lot of time in developing (it's using a vintage 1992 version of TCL/Tk, which is quite obsolete but still works). The future lies in porting SimCity to Python, a much better and more modern language, and using modern software modules, like Cairo for drawing (so you can zoom into the city to any scale, draw transparent map overlays and data visualizations, etc).
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Yes it works fine on the black and white (grayscale) screen, without any change. The color coding helps you recognize stuff, but it's not necessary. The color graphics just come out in grayscale, without the software even knowing about it. SimCity does have a black and white tile set, but this version doesn't actually use it. (It could, but the X server would have to go into black and white mode, which is not nearly as nice as grayscale mode). It would be a straightforward modification to support black and white tiles, which are high contrast, but it looks good enough for now. It's better to put effort into moving SimCity forward into Python for scripting and Cairo for rendering, and enabling plug-in tile sets, then it will be simple to plug in the old black and white tiles.
The open source lincity would also be nice to port to the OLPC. I don't know if it has a built-in scripting language like TCL or Python, though.
That's what makes this version of SimCity so useful for education: it can be scripted to support educational scenarios, science experiments, courseware, etc. For example, the OLPC's microphone input can be used as an analog input device, so you could plug in a digital thermometer, and script the temperature in the real world room to effect the tax rate of the virtual city, or you could monitor the built-in microphone amplitude, and trigger an earthquake every time you clapped your hands, or anything else you can think of.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Alan Kay wrote this on the OLPC Sugar mailing list, about implementing visual programming languages like eToys in Python:
One of Alan Kay's favorite games is Robot Odyssey! I wrote to him:
Alan Kay replied:
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
In other (and fewer) words, the plan is to respond to Alan Kay's valid criticisms of SimCity by opening it up to scripting languages, documenting and parameterizing how it works, and ultimately implementing an eToys-like visual programming language for scripting and extending SimCity, and implementing your own games based on the reusable components that SimCity will be rebuilt in terms of (like a generic tile engine, sprite engine, map editing tools, numerical and symbolic layers, data visualizations, overlays, annotations, points of interest, etc).
Oops, I was trying for fewer words. Oh well...
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Hey, why don't you help Mitch Bradley port his excellent Forth system to run on the OLPC? It already does, but it's in the OpenFirmware boot ROMs, so it runs before Linux even boots. But the same Forth system runs quite nicely under Unix as well (without all the direct hardware access :), and is quite luxurous. I used it on the Sun 3 and Sparcstation years ago, and worked at Sun as his summer intern on CForth, another portable Forth system. Mitch is one of the best and most accomplished Forth programmers on or off the planet. If you want to do Forth on the OLPC, Mitch Bradley is definitely the dude to talk to about it!
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
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Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
I remeber buying that via one of those scholastic book orders in elementry school, box came with a cd inside, nothing else. I found the game completely incomprehensable. Have the SimCity 2000 Special Edition however that came with SCURK, still play it. Loved having the urban renewal kit, built fantastic cities, everything laid out symetrically, everything close enough to a road, evenly spaced hospitals, schools, fire houses, etc. For some reason though, these perfect cities never worked well, never could figure that out.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Ofcourse oranges are disease resistant, they originally grow among JEWS, which says it all.
the boss of EA is a drunk fuck so what do you expect? he could barely walk at the WWDC 07, ffs, and the cocksucker was on stage with bluejean pederast himself, Jeve Stobs, which could count as an embarrasing moment, as clearly none of the two were comfortable sucking cock in front of a large audience so they had to let it pass, (like the wind itself,) which counts as a setback in regards to daily routine.
I had it on my Palm :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincity
Totally useless software for the OLPC and free PR for EA (they were NOT making money on the game any more).
What is next? Mircosoft donating free Minesweeper to the OLPC and getting press for it?
Well, you very probably learned a whole lot of hand-eye coordination, grammar, spelling, and netiquette, all of which are very useful skills.
It's probably forbidden in Germany (I hope). In Dutch it's called "hoofdkaas" nowadays (shudder).
To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?
With all that the child that will benefit from the OLPC just might kick our own kids ass in 50 years. What if this project turn those country into super power country and with our kids having more and more problem at school our country turn to emerging nation status! I hope they will remember then, that we gave them all those tools! GO OLPC! That would teach us humility!
Portugal: 481 cops per 100,000 citizens
France: 397 cops per 100,000 citizens
USA: 238 cops per 100,000 citizens
Worked for you, but are you the target demographic for OLPC? I think not. I love all these posts arguing against my view, created by people who also are not the target demographic for OLPC.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Someone must consider the socioeconomic ramifications of every child in the third world thinking that they can become rich simply by typing IMACHEAT
I recorded a demo of OLPC SimCity, and uploaded it to YouTube. Here is the URL, and the credits: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpKhh10K-j0
OLPC SimCity
GPL Open Source Code
"Micropolis" Release
GUI & OLPC support designed and implemented by Don Hopkins.
Developed thanks to the generous support of:
Maxis
Electronic Arts
DUX Software
Sun Microsystems
Turing Institute
Kaleida Labs
OLPC
John Gilmore
Internet Archive
TomTom
Special thanks to:
Will Wright
Jeff Braun
Mike Perry
Charles Norman
John Riccitiello
Steve Seabolt
Amanda Taggart
JoAnn Covington
Brian Rubin
Alicia Truby
Jim Mackraz
Jamie Doornbos
Eric Bowman
Arthur van Hoff
Dug Scoular
Bob Adams
John Ousterhout
John Gilmore
Seymour Papert
Alan Kay
Mark Weiser
Ben Shneiderman
Walter Bender
SJ Klein
Mary Lou Jepsen
Ted Selker
Mitch Bradley
Jim Gettys
Justin McCormick
Cassidy Wright
Slats
Broken Robot
Professor Johnson
Kitty Puff Puff
Misty the WonderBot
Super ChiBot
Chia's Little Helper
(Robot Action
Combat Cluster
MultiBot)
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
I've just posted a whole bunch of stuff about OLPC SimCity, including some exciting discussion with Alan Kay about eToys, Robot Odyssey, Visual Programming, and teaching kids to program, to my blog:
http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal
Here is the flurry of recent posts:
SimCity Rules: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/145
Python Plug-In Technologies for Extending OLPC SimCity: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/144
OLPC Visual Programming Languages for Education: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/143
Redesigning the SimCity User Interface for the OLPC: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/142
Ideas about OLPC SimCity GUI, Turtle Graphics, and Cellular Automata: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/141
Discussion with Alan Kay about Visual Programming: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/140
Discussion with Alan Kay about Robot Odyssey: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/139
SimCity, Robot Odyssey, and Visual Programming: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/138
OLPC Visual Programming Language Discussion with Guido van Rossum and Alan Kay: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/137
Slashdot OLPC SimCity Discussion: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/136
Responding to Alan Kay's criticisms of SimCity: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/135
Alan Kay's ideas about SimCity for OLPC: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/134
SJ Klein's OLPC Keynote at GDC Serious Games Summit: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/133
Alan Kay on Programming Languages: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/132
History and Future of OLPC SimCity / Micropolis: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/131
GPL Open Source Code of "OLPC SimCity" to be called "Micropolis": http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/130
SimCity for OLPC (One Laptop Per Child): Applying Papert's Ideas About Constructionist Education and Teaching Kids to Program: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/129
Pie Menus for OLPC Sugar User Interface, in Python with GTK, Cairo and Pango modules: http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/128
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com